The team first appeared in 1992 in the first issue of their eponymous comic book WildC.A.T.s: Covert Action Teams, published by Image Comics. It was Image founding partner Jim Lee's first work published by the newly launched company, and his first creator owned project. The Wildcats were the starting point for Lee's menagerie of interconnected superhero creations which became the foundation of the Wildstorm Universe. The Wildcats comics, launched at the apex of a speculator-fuelled comics sales boom, was wildly popular at its inception, with wholesale sales to comic book stores above one million copies for early issues. This first series ran for 50 issues, and in addition to Lee featured work by such prominent comics creators as Travis Charest, Chris Claremont, James Robinson and Alan Moore. This popularity saw the property expand into other media, with an animated adaptation of the comic debuting on CBS in 1994 and a toyline from Playmates Toys.

In 1998, ownership of the Wildcats concepts and characters were sold to DC Comics, a subsidiary of Time Warner, as part of DC's acquisition of Lee's company Wildstorm Productions. A new incarnation of the team was soon launched, under the simplified title Wildcats, focusing on the former members of the now-disbanded team and emphasizing a grittier tone during its 28-issue run. The third series, Wildcats Version 3.0, revolved around the HALO Corporation, its CEO Jack Marlowe (an amalgamation of original team members Spartan & Void), Grifter and a gallery of new characters subverting corporation politics to their cause of creating a better world. This incarnation lasted 24 issues and was followed by a nine-issue limited series titled Wildcats: Nemesis, which returned to a more superheroic style reminiscent of the first series. In late 2006, a fourth ongoing series was launched as a part of the Worldstorm publishing initiative. The series saw the return of Jim Lee as regular penciller for the first time since its first volume while Grant Morrison took over writing duties. Only one issue was ever published, with future issues placed on hold. In mid-2008 a fifth volume of Wildcats was launched, tying into the World's End crossover event.

Launched as an original Image comic book title by popular X-Men penciler Jim Lee and his friend, writer Brandon Choi, the comic book's premise revolved around the centuries long war between aliens called Kherubim and Daemonites. Kherubims, a nearly immortal, human-looking alien race with exceptional powers and skills, traveled to Earth and by breeding with humans populated the planet with "Half-Breeds". Daemonites, besides having a fearsome appearance, also possessed various superhuman abilities including body possession and mental control over human beings. The initial arc brought Voodoo over to the team as the readers' point of view character as Helspont, a Daemonite warlord had taken control over Vice President of the United StatesDan Quayle. Rob Liefeld's Youngblood co-starred in the closing chapters of the arc.

WildC.A.T.s' story continued in a three-part mini-series, penciled by Jae Lee, that introduced the Daemonite Lord Hightower. Jim Lee and Marc Silvestri proceeded to publish a 'Killer Instinct' crossover detailing Warblade's connection to Marc Silvestri's Cyberforce.

Jim Lee devoted his time to coming up with the new concepts of Gen13, Deathblow and Stormwatch. Before he left the book he did the four-issue Gathering of Eagles storyline written by his Uncanny X-Men writer, Chris Claremont. It featured a new villain in Tapestry and added the characters of Mister Majestic, Savant and Soldier, and featured Claremont's creator owned character Huntsman.

Almost all of the characters were spun off into their own mini-series, with Zealot featured in a 3 part Ron Marz written story, Spartan having his Kurt Busiek written mini-series, Warblade sharing another with Cyberforce's Ripclaw, Grifter co-starred in a mini with Stormwatch's Backlash that led to the latter's ongoing title, as well as another with Youngblood's Badrock, Billy Tucci's Shi and even Dark Horse'sthe Mask.

James Robinson wrote a handful of issues, and also participated in the Wildcats' first Annual as well as a Team One Stormwatch/WildC.A.T.s mini-series detailing the past of the Wildstorm universe. The title also participated in the WildC.A.T.s-oriented "Wildstorm Rising" crossover that saw the heroes try to gain control of the Daemonite battleship, which turned out to be the Kheran Ship instead, with WildC.A.T.s eventually leaving for Khera. Following a Grifter oneshot, the crossover gave birth to a short-lived Steven Seagle written Grifter series that centered on his super spy/superhero adventures while linking to an obscure Team One character Regiment at one point.

Alan Moore attempted to give the series depth and cohesion by following up on the initial premise of the Daemonite and Kherubim war. After Grifter resigned, the C.A.T.s had the opportunity to venture to Khera where they found what appeared to be paradise. The Kherubims had won the Daemonite-Kherubim war and were living in prosperity. Appearances were deceiving, however, and it was apparent the planet was run by power-hungry politicians who had ruthlessly subjugated the Daemonites as second-class citizens. Voodoo, with her Daemonite blood, experienced this firsthand. Maul's race was also treated unjustly and though Emp, Warblade and Zealot were seduced by promises of power and recognition, Spartan discovered the truth about Khera's corrupt leaders. It took the death of one of Maul's race for the WildC.A.T.s to leave and head back for Earth. Disillusioned by the outcome of the war offworld and their selfishness, the team fell apart. Voodoo left and Emp fell into depression. The original team returned to Earth in pieces and despite having new members, they were defeated by the cunning traitor, Tao, who had manipulated them at each turn. Alan Moore also participated in Fire From Heaven, a huge continuity-heavy crossover that resolved plotlines regarding Team One, Team 7 and Kaizen Gamorra.

Alan Moore spun Voodoo off in a four-issue mini-series that had almost no connection to WildC.A.T.s mythos instead dealing with voodoo magic. Alan Moore also wrote a time-traveling WildC.A.T.s/Spawn crossover mini-series.

At the time, Grifter had another turn at an ongoing series, this time written by Steven Grant with a much more gritty take on the character while Zealot was featured in a Backlash spinoff, Wildcore.

A two part arc was set in place before the book's co-creator Brandon Choi returned, setting up the short lasting Savant Garde spin-off. Choi initiated a storyline with an organization called Puritans as the main villains. The Puritans' goal was to eradicate the Kherubim and Daemonites on Earth. The 'C.A.T.s included Grifter, Condition Red and new members Mythos (a Kherubim Lord), Olympia (a Coda-trained Daemonite) and Sister Eve (the daughter of Emp's brother, Lord Entropy). The team traveled in time, and had various adventures through different time periods.

After the first series cancellation, WildStorm, now an imprint of DC Comics, resurrected the Wildcats under a whole different premise - Wildcats dealt with the lives of the original members after the team's breakup following a botched mission during which team member Zealot apparently died. Scott Lobdell provided the writing for the initial seven issues as well as a Mosaic oneshot detailing the change in Lord Emp, with Travis Charest penciling most of them. New villains like Kenyan and CC Rendozo were featured as antagonists, but it was all dropped very quickly, with Charest leaving the monthly comic format to work on a French Metabarons graphic novel called Dreamshifters and Lobdell exiting a couple of issues later.

As Joe Casey and Sean Phillips took over Wildcats, they quickly dealt away with Kenyan while Void and Emp ended up having Spartan absorb their assets and powers, thus the book began a long spell featuring him aided by Ladytron and Grifter with Maul and Voodoo guest-starring and as well as new characters Noir, Agents Wax and Mohr of the National Park Service. Warblade was featured very briefly, last time in the Wildcats 2000 annual that brought back the dead version Condition Red, killing Olympia. Casey and Phillips signaled the new Wildstorm - critically acclaimed but low on readers' radar. The heroes fought Samuel "Slaughterhouse" Smith (a superhuman serial killer whose grandfather had appeared in Team One: WildC.A.T.s) after which eventually Zealot returned. Casey also wrote the Ladytron oneshot, a farsic rendition of her past, as well as a Mister Majestic ongoing series which ran for nine issues.

Wild Times: Wildcats and Wild Times: Grifter were published as oneshots, as a part of the crossover series Wild Times that spotlighted the characters in Elseworlds-like alternate reality scenarios that blended genres. Wildcats also participated in the WildC.A.T.s/Aliens crossover written by Stormwatch's Warren Ellis that served as a coda to that series and a prequel to his Authority run, having very little to do with the Wildcats themselves.

The third series, Wildcats Version 3.0, was a part of the mature readers' Eye of the Storm imprint, dealing with Spartan's (now Jack Marlowe) agenda to better the world by proliferating advanced technology and power sources throughout the world via the HALO Corporation. Grifter was his troubleshooter and Agent Wax was one of his first associates. The stories added a motley group to this proactive organisation including the power broker C.C. Rendozzo and her organization, Agent Orange, and Grifter's unlikely pupil Edwin Dolby, one of HALO's accountants. The series ended with a thunderous finale where Zealot destroyed the Coda chapter she created on Earth. The whole series was written by Joe Casey and most of it was illustrated by Dustin Nguyen.

Concurrent with Wildcats Version 3.0, Wildstorm also published a critically acclaimed noir-superhero series Sleeper starring Alan Moore's Wildcats villain Tao, several Wildcats and other related characters. Spartan played a role in the Coup D'État crossover centering on The Authority taking over as rulers of the Wildstorm Universe's United States.

After guest-starring in Superman books, in 2004 DC published a Mr. Majestic mini-series to test waters for an ongoing series that ran for seventeen issues.

Wildcats starred in a limited series by Robbie Morrison and Talent Caldwell entitled Wildcats: Nemesis, focusing on Zealot, Majestic and the Coda continuity, while heavily spotlighting the new Wildstorm universe anti-hero character of Charis, Lady Nemesis.

At the same time, Wildstorm published the Captain Atom: Armageddon maxi-series, heavily featuring the Wildcats as they tried to help DC character Captain Atom return to his universe and stop him from accidentally destroying their reality. Nikola, a female medic became the new Void with Captain Atom sharing a part of the power that eventually remade the Wildstorm universe altogether.

In 2006, as part of the "Worldstorm" line-wide event, the title was restarted, written by Grant Morrison and drawn by Jim Lee. The team consisted of Spartan, Mr. Majestic, Zealot, Grifter, Voodoo, Savant, and Ladytron. Warblade is on a secret mission, and Maul has retired to his civilian identity. Kaizen Gamorra returned as villain, aided by the WildCats' first enemy, Helspont. However, the title was permanently put on hold after only one issue.

Spartan: Originally intended to be a highly sophisticated cyborg who could "die" and easily be downloaded to another body, Spartan's character has been revised several times. It was discovered that he was designed after the Hadrian-series of cyborgs from the Kherubim's homeworld and there were plenty of similar androids like him.[7] Spartan had "human emotions" towards Voodoo. Spartan's history grew even more complicated when Alan Moore explained that he was an incarnation of a long-dead hero, John Colt a.k.a. the Kherubim lord Yohn Kohl.[volume & issue needed] Later still,[volume & issue needed] he absorbed the powers of Void, making him one of the most powerful beings in the Wildstorm Universe. He later turned away from the role of superhero,[volume & issue needed] trying to improve the world as Jack Marlowe, CEO of the Halo Corporation by introducing highly advanced alien technology into human society.

Zealot (Lady Zannah): A Kherubim and a Coda warrior. Zealot is the former Majestrix of the Coda and helped develop their virtues and practices. She has lived for thousands of years and has had many relationships with both humans and aliens alike. After failing to follow her own rules under the Coda, she left their clan and they have hunted her since. She was part of Team One under the name of Lucy Blaze. Zealot has a close friendship with Grifter though she is equally devoted to her sister Savant, who is secretly her real daughter. Winter from Stormwatch is, possibly, Zealot's son. Zealot left the Wildcats and for a limited amount of time she joined Dept. PSI and co-led WildCORE with Backlash; a half Kherubim and former member Team 7. In later years Zealot turned upon her former allies in the Coda, claiming that by becoming mere assassins they have betrayed their purpose.[volume & issue needed] Since then she has almost wiped out the Coda single-handed.[volume & issue needed]

Voodoo (Priscilla Kitaen): A telepathic Human-Kherubim hybrid with Daemonite ancestry, Voodoo has the ability to see Daemonites who have possessed humans and separate them from the bodies the Daemonites possessed. Voodoo was an exotic dancer before being rescued by the WildC.A.Ts from the Daemonites. She was later trained by Zealot in combat and developed an attraction towards Spartan. Her Daemonite ancestry was not revealed until she lapsed into a coma after being shot. Void entered her mind through a computer, and it was revealed that one of her ancestors, a Kherubim, was possessed by a Daemonite.[volume & issue needed] Disappointed by her life as a superhero, she left the Wildcats and studied Voodoo magic.[volume & issue needed] After she left the Wildcats, Voodoo was attacked by a serial killer named Samuel Smith, a fight which cost her both her legs. An elderly Daemonite appeared to her and taught her to use her hidden powers of regeneration and time manipulation. She managed to regrow her legs and started a relationship with her former teammate Maul.[volume & issue needed]

Grifter (Cole Cash): A former government operative and member of Team 7. He is the only male ever trained by the Coda. Grifter represented the loner of the group though he seemed devoted to his partner Zealot. He was the only member of the original team not to use any active post-human powers (even though he had them due to being gen-active following Team 7's disbanding). His disagreements with Jacob Marlowe and the arrival of a second group of WildC.A.T.s[volume & issue needed] led to his resignation and ill-fated solo comic book series. He returned to the Wildcats after the death of his brother, Max, only to leave the team again after Zealot's apparent death.[volume & issue needed] Emp managed to convince him to rejoin the team to battle the threat of Kenyan.[volume & issue needed] After Kenyan's death, Cole started working for Jack Marlowe. This job cost him the use of his legs, landing him in a wheelchair for a long time, even forcing him to use Ladytron's robotic body as a remote-controlled stand-in[volume & issue needed]. Later, Grifter's latent powers healed his broken legs.[volume & issue needed]

Maul (Jeremy Stone): A Human-Titanthrope hybrid capable of increasing his size and mass at the cost of his reasoning capability. Maul experiences powerful rage and is actually a Nobel-prize-winning scientist named Dr. Jeremy Stone. In the second series, by which time Voodoo has become his roommate of three months, he was shown to have become more devoted to science and reluctant to use his superhuman abilities. He discovered he could increase his intelligence by decreasing his body mass, but this proved to be physically depleting.[8]

Warblade (Reno Bryce): A Human-Shaper hybrid capable of transforming parts of his body into any solid weapon. Warblade is an accomplished martial artist. Although a virtual killing machine, Reno also has the soul of an artist, having his sculpted work displayed in major art galleries. During Moore's run, a Kheran lord trained him in the use of his powers.[volume & issue needed] In the second series, he killed the mercenary Pike for killing his girlfriend and retired as a superhero.[volume & issue needed] He still keeps in touch with Grifter.

Void (Adrianna Tereshkova): She has the ability to see the future and teleport herself and others to anywhere on Earth due to her absorption of an Orb of Power. Over time, Void grew more and more distant from humanity and the part of her spirit that was Adrianna moved on to the afterlife.[volume & issue needed] The Void entity existed without any host for a short time, before the actions of the traitor Noir endangered its existence and Spartan temporarily became its new host[volume & issue needed] before it bonded with paramedic Nikola Hanssen.[volume & issue needed]

Lord Emp (Jacob Marlowe): A multi-millionaire who owns the media/technology conglomerate the Halo Corporation. Although he was once a Kherubim warlord, Emp does not remember his past and has no control over the powers he once wielded. It was the woman named Void who took him from his life as a homeless man and made him into the wealthy financier of the WildC.A.Ts.[volume & issue needed] It was revealed[volume & issue needed] he has assumed other rich personas in the past, including that of industrialist Saul Baxter during most of the 20th century. In the second series, Emp had taken a more alien appearance in preparation for his 'Ascension', a process which ultimately cost him his physical body but freed his spirit.[volume & issue needed] Gone from the physical plane of existence, he left all his possessions to Spartan.

A second team was introduced later in the series. They were formed after the original team, rumored to be dead, had left for Khera, the Kherubim homeworld. This unlikely group broke from the WildC.A.T.s usual anti-Daemonite agenda and conducted a proactive war on criminals. This alienated them from many other characters in the Wildstorm universe.

Mister Majestic (Lord Majestros): Another Kherubim warlord who is one of four that had been stuck on Earth. Mr. Majestic is a Superman homage, with similar powers and physical characteristics, though he also is a genius inventor and a highly skilled martial artist (focused mostly on swordplay). He recently crossed over into the Superman comics, replacing the Man of Steel for a brief time[volume & issue needed], though he later returned and recently met Captain Atom[volume & issue needed]. Following his return from the DC Universe, Majestic starred in his second ongoing solo-series.

Savant (Kenesha): The daughter of Lord Majestros and Zealot (a fact which was until recently[volume & issue needed] only known to Zealot). Savant thinks she is Zealot's sister. She is an adventurer possessing many artifacts of mystic power and advanced technologies, including boots that can teleport the person who wears it and a piece of Void's Orb. Savant has shown superhuman strength, virtual immortality and has genius-level intellect, but can also be irresponsible and brash. She was the leading character of the short-lived Savant Garde series.

Condition Red (Max Cash, also known as Max Profitt): The younger brother of Grifter with excellent fighting and marksmanship abilities. Max was gunned down by a Coda Assassin in issue #49 of the first series and died in the final issue. He was resurrected as a zombie for one annual in the second series.

T.A.O.: An artificially produced human being with peculiar thinking abilities that enables him to be inhumanly persuasive and incredibly intuitive. He was eventually revealed to have been manipulating the team to self-destruction, the revelation of which caused him to seemingly be killed by Majestic.[volume & issue needed] Eventually it was revealed that he had foreseen this and had a shapeshifted prisoner take the hit.[volume & issue needed] He later re-appeared[volume & issue needed], having founded a worldwide criminal organization that aimed to destabilize human global governments, public institutions and age-old secret societies that controlled many aspects of the Wildstorm Universe. T.A.O.'s story after he left the WildC.A.T.S. were told in the series Point Blank and Sleeper.

Ladytron (Maxine Manchester): A cyborg punk with homicidal tendencies. She was captured by the Wildcats and through T.A.O.'s reprogramming convinced to join the team. She admired the cybernetic mercenary Overtkill and was romantically interested in Max Cash, though her interest was not returned. When T.A.O. was revealed as a traitor, he disabled her robotic body and Ladytron was taken to the Church of Gort. She became a nun for this new age cult devoted to robotics, but had a falling out with its members because she still contained organic bodyparts[volume & issue needed]. She ended up with the Wildcats again, but was wounded again, this time by the serial killer Samuel Smith. The damage was so extensive that Ladytron was shut down.[volume & issue needed] A short stint as Noir's reprogrammed pawn later, Ladytron's mind was downloaded into the Halo mainframe and her body was used by the wheelchair-bound Grifter as a remote-controlled stand-in.[volume & issue needed]

The team consisted of Grifter, Max Profitt (Max Cash), Void and Spartan (an old Spartan unit, with no knowledge about Khera or the "previous life" as John Colt), as well as these new members[volume & issue needed]:

Mythos: A powerful mystic and Kherubim lord. He has superhuman physical attributes, such as an incredible speed.

Olympia: A Daemonite mercenary who has Coda training. Unlike many of her race, she was peaceful and even adopted a teenager named Kai as her apprentice. When Max Cash was killed, she killed his assassin in revenge. She was killed by a resurrected Max Cash during the Devil's Night crossover

Sister Eve: Lord Entropy's daughter, who was a nun before joining the WildC.A.T.s. She has inherited her father's "chaos power", which allows her to affect an object's molecular structure.

Grifter II (Edwin Dolby): Jack Marlowe's main accountant and right-hand man in the Halo Corporation. When Grifter's legs were seriously injured in a mission, he started training Dolby to be the second Grifter after learning of Dolby's natural aptitude for markmanship. Dolby, however, refused to kill. Despite this, Dolby was sent on a mission and during this mission he panicked and accidentally killed a man. He suffered a mental breakdown and quit Halo, but Marlowe was able to convince him to return by reinforcing his belief in the success of Halo's mission.

Agent Wax: Jack Marlowe's mole at the National Park Service, a government agency tasked with monitoring superhuman activity. Wax is gifted with strong hypnotic powers, but his superiors never knew this. He quit the Service after the death of his partner, but he returned later. Because he had left, he was forced to take a desk job and was bullied by his boss, Agent Downs. He enacted revenge by using his powers to force Downs' wife into having sex with him on multiple occasions. Downs learned of Wax's manipulations and forced Wax to a confrontation. Wax made Downs kill himself with his hypnotic powers. He then used his powers to impersonate Downs. Marlowe found out about Downs' death, but decided to give Wax a second chance.

C. C. Rendozzo: An information broker who knows about Jack Marlowe's alien origin. In return for her silence on his alien heritage, he agreed to rescue her son, who had been kidnapped by his government agent father. Despite spending most of her time behind a desk, Rendozzo is quite skilled with firearms and joined Grifter in an attempt to rescue Zealot, even taking a number of her henchmen along with her.

Agent Orange: Another mole of Jack Marlowe, this time at the FBI. Agent Orange is an enhanced human, who can be mentally programmed for certain tasks. Agent Orange's blood is composed of dioxin and he has shown superhuman strength, durability and endurance. Never speaking or showing any emotion, Agent Orange is quite similar in appearance and behaviour to The Terminator.

The Beef Boys: Two remarkably, possibly superhumanly, strong men dressed in S&M fetish gear. Apart from running a BDSM club, they are also mercenaries who work for Grifter from time to time. The taller of the two, Glenn, never speaks, while the other, Cedric, is quite eloquent. Glenn was killed by the Coda.

With the "World's End" crossover, original Wildcats Spartan, Zealot, Voodoo, Grifter, Maul and Warblade were brought together again to help save what was left of the human race. Their membership also included Ladytron as well as new members:

Both WildC.A.T.S Covert Action Teams: Compendium and A Gathering of Eagles are out of print. New printings of the trade paperbacks WildC.A.T.s: Homecoming and WildC.A.T.s: Gang War were published in 1999 after the late 1998 acquisition of WildStorm Productions by DC Comics; as of 2009, both volumes have now sold out and are currently out of print. In August 2007 Alan Moore's Complete WildC.A.T.S TPB was released, containing the contents of both Gang War and Homecoming TPBs, as well as the short story from WildC.A.T.S #50.

A WildC.A.T.s TV series was created in 1994. It had only thirteen episodes and a more family-friendly storyline. As a result there were numerous changes from the source material, such as Voodoo being an adolescent rather than an ex-stripper and Lord Emp being an ordinary human. The group was composed of all the original 'C.A.T.s. The major villain was Helspont, but the Troika and the Coda were featured. A parody of the series, MadD.O.G.s, was seen during Alan Moore's run in the comics. The series was produced by Nelvana Limited and WildStorm Productions (Funimation recently released the series' entire run on DVD).

A toyline from Playmates Toys was also released in 1994. The basic series included figures of Grifter, Helspont, Maul, Spartan, Warblade and Zealot, along with a generic Daemonite figure.[10] In 1995, new versions of Helspont, Maul, Spartan, Warblade and Zealot were released, along with figures of Pike, Void and Voodoo, and a WildC.A.T.S. Bullet Bike accessory. In addition, Playmates also produced "giant" versions of Grifter, Maul and Spartan, plus figures for other characters in the Image Universe, such as Black Razor, Mr. Majestic and Slag.[11]